"Would you do it again?"

Everyone I have talked to about the Global Scavenger Hunt asks, "Would you do it again?" Every time I'm asked the question, I stumble with the answer.

I have hardly unpacked and barely caught up on my sleep; so it's difficult to consider the possibility of revving up to do it again. (Some ask because they wonder if they might want to sign up themselves).

But, here's how I look at the experience - and what would go into trying to answer that question.

1. Of the countries we visited, I had never been to seven of them. You only get to have a first impression once - and I was fortunate to have had lots of them. That was fantastic. Would another "Blind Date with the World" provide as many totally new experiences? I don't know.

2. Bill Chalmers has designed the trip with variety, intelligence, challenge, and fun. Each day was an incredibly exciting adventure (even when it was exhausting and we spent too much time on things we feared might be dead ends).

3. The itinerary was designed beautifully to flip-flop from easy (Taiwan) to harder (Cambodia) to easier (Thailand) to hard (India), etc.

4. The group of travelers Bill chose was fantastic. I really enjoyed meeting everyone on the trip and made new friends who share a love of travel and discovery.

5. It was HARD! Every new place required a strategy and a plan of attack. We had to make decisions and get going with very little information. We had long days, not enough sleep and drove ourselves. But it was very, very rewarding. The more we did, the more we saw and the better it was.

6. I am confident in my ability to approach strangers and get information. But this is different. You have to INVEST in what they tell you - whether it's setting off believing you are going in the right direction, or estimating the time it takes to get somewhere...we had to really rely on people. And they rarely let us down (except some taxi drivers and tuk-tuk drivers who we had to learn to distrust).

7. I was amazed by how consistently generous people from all over the world are with their time. When we asked people on the street for information, with rare exception, they would stop and give us an answer.

8. Although this is irrelevant to any question asked: I learned that I love the Cambodian people. They are extraordinarily kind, open, down-to earth and warm. It was a stand-out discovery.

9. I loved traveling with my son Alex. We made a fantastic team. Got along perfectly and complimented each others' strengths (and yes, weaknesses).

10. I have a great sense of accomplishment...We found our way in strange places and cultures far outside of our comfort zones. And, we traveled the world.

Would I do this trip again? Still don't know.

The most exhausting thing about it was being off-balance by being plunked into a place without context or a map; without the ability to figure out in advance what we want to see and where we want to go.

But, by the time we left each place, we had hit the hot lists and had always done quirky off-the-beaten path things like trying some unusual food or figuring out a piece the public transportation system. Very, very gratifying.

Photos from Iceland

 
 
 
 

Gullfoss Waterfall; Geysir (Icelandic word) in Geysir, erupting; Alex and me at the Blue Lagoon (Blaa lonio in Icelandic); View of some people bathing in the Blue Lagoon

Photos from Copenhagen

 
 
 
 

FINALLY found Soren Kierkegaard's grave (after 45 minutes of looking in the rain); Alex's Danish host parents from his Junior Year abroad; Alex's host brother; Attending a session of Folketing (Danish Congress) at Christianborg Palace

Photos from Tunisia

 
 
 

Beautiful town of Sidi Bou Said - outside of Tunis; Tophet - site where over 20,000 child sacrifices were made in ancient times in Carthage; Roman Coliseum in El Jem - completely intact and accessible

Photos from Istanbul

 
 
 

Photos from Istanbul, Turkey: Spice Market (Misir Carsisi); Mosaic Museum in the Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I; AFTER the Turkish Bath at Cagaloglu Hamam

Descriptions of Photos

I just posted some photos and here is a little context:

Summing up Taiwan ("We are Taiwanese, Not Chinese")
Meat Pills and Eating Tianbula in Shilin Night Market in Taipei
Tiger and Dragon Pagoda in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Alex Eating a Fried Tarantula on Road 6 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Dead Fish Cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Angkor Wat at Sunrise
Travelling to Angkor Thom Temple by Elephant
Near the Temple of the Emerald Buddah in Bangkok
Buddah in a Tree in Ayutthaya, Thailand (you must keep your head below his)
Birthday Pizza During Thai Cooking Lesson
Contrasts in Jaipur, India: Cow Grazing in a Street, Sari Shopping and Dinner at the Oberoi Rajvilas Palace Hotel
Taj Mahal at 114 Degrees Fahrenheit
Taj Mahal from Bed in Air Conditioned Room at Oberoi Amarvilas Hotel, Agra, India
Eating Turkish Delight in Istanbul
Riding a Rickshaw in Chandi Chowk, Old Delhi, India

Photos from India and Turkey

 
 
 

Photos from India

 
 
 
 

Photos from Thailand

 
 
 
 

Photos from Cambodia

 
 
 
 

Photos from Taiwan

 
 
 
 

Finished in Boston

About the last thing we felt like doing after landing at Logan Airport was scavenging on a hunt through Boston.
But, it felt absolutely wonderful, cozy and safe to return to US soil.
We arrived at the Copley Plaza Hotel around 7:30 PM. Nothing was strucutured for the evening, but one of the travelers made a reservation for all of us at the Palm across the street. Alex was a good sport and checked in for us so I could run into the Copley Plaza mall and buy a pair of ballet slippers to expand my options beyond filthy sneakers, flipflops and clunky comfortable walking shoes.
After dinner, we went right to bed, as we had an 8 AM meeting.
Alex and I both awoke before the alarm, got dressed and found Starbucks.
At the meeting, we were given the Boston scavenges. For those who had never been to Boston, it was yet another exciting day of scavenging. For those of us (there were several) who had lived in Boston or nearby, it was anticlimactic. But, a group of us rallied and planned to take the Duck Tour and do a few other scavenges.
At this point, the competition results appeared to be locked in. The point levels between teams were far enough apart that points earned in Boston were not going to make a difference.
The Duck Tour was great! The driver was smart and very informed about history, sports, pop culture, etc. We peppered her with weird questions. When passing the Parker House, we asked "Who was radicalized in the kitchen?" (Answer: Malcolm X) "What did JFK do here? (Answer: Proposed to Jackie). She said "What? Are you people on a Scavenger Hunt?" Yep-and it's almost over.
We came in fourth (we think). Only the top three teams were crowned as winners with medals. Anyway, at last count, we were fourth.
At the final dinner at the Rustic Kitchen, the teams reported on our collections of various types that we were supposed to be doing along the way.
For global price index (choose an item and find its price in every country we visited), people tracked the price of things like beer, massage,and bottled water. We followed the price of a newspaper. Interestingly, it tracked very closely with the bottled water prices. Our most expensive newspaper was in Tunisia where the guy in the newstand shortchanged me and charged quadruple the price. Here were the prices we recorded:
Taiwan 100 New Taiwan Dollars
Cambodia 12 Riel
Thailand 30 Baht
India 3 Rupees
Turkey 1.5 Turkish Lire
Tunisia 2.000 Dinars (but he shortchanged us and we paid 8.000)
Germany 1.5 Euros
Denmark 20 Kroner
Iceland 65 Kr.
USA 1.50 Dollars

We also recorded the types of transportation we took. Here is what we collected:
Airplane
Taxi
Bus
Car
Elephant
Boat
Tuk-tuk with moped
Tuk-tuk with inboard motor
Train
High Speed Train
Skytrain
Foot
Subway
Golf cart
Ferry
Bicycle
Swimming
Duck Boat
Rickshaw
Funicular
Streetcar
Elevator
Rotating restaurant

And, our team, Operation Show and Tell, won the prize for the tackiest souvenir, over the leading contender of the Chiang Kai-Shek bobblehead. Our souvenir, which we picked up at Quincy Market in Boston, was a pair of black boxer shorts that had two yellow highway warning signs on the back side, which said "Toxic Fumes". That's how we are all feeling about our clothes and our luggage. It's time to go home.

Ending on a High Note in the Blue Lagoon

Keflavik, the airport that serves Reykjavik's international flights is almost one hour out of town. Surrounding the Keflavik Airport for vast miles beyond where the eye can see - is - absolutely nothing. The terrain is brown, treeless, almost flat, barren, and rocky. The view from the sole road looks like the moon.
If you don't happen to be blinking at the moment and don't miss it, you can see a small white road sign with red letters that says "Blaa lonio" and points off to the right. Fortunately, as Alex was driving, I had been madly rifling through the tourist brochures and knew from ONE tiny reference that "Blaa lonio" is the Icelandic name for what is advertised as the Blue Lagoon. It is a really cool place and we were looking forward to finding it!
To call it a hot water spring is lame. It is a spa and an edgy, upscale geothermal pool of sorts. Again, these descriptions fall far short.
When we turned off the airport highway and onto the access road to the Blue Lagoon, we saw plumes of white steam pulsing through the air. Those columns of steam emanate from a commercial plant (harnessing the geothermal energy from the hot undergroung water?). The road winds past that plant and around into a parking lot marked by four flagpoles. The gently rolling rocky piles obscured the view into the entrance. Even after we parked the car and walked up the path, the mystery persisted. Suddenly, we arrived at an architectually exciting, boxy, horizontally slatted building in front of us. And, to the left was a small lake of sorts, except that the shores were sharp brown rock and the water was the color of milk, slightly tinted with antifreeze, and almost flourescent.
We rushed into the building to escape from the biting cold wind. At the entrance desk we paid a fee for access, towel rental and plastic bracelet with electronic chip for the storage locker. Alex and I agreed to meet in the lagoon after passing through our respective changing rooms.
In the women's locker room, I had to take off my street shoes right away. Attendants make sure everyone follows the routine. I put my clothes and purse in an empty locker, hovering the chip-enhanced bracelet over a sensor to program the bracelet for that particular locker. (Later, I discovered I didn't hover long enough, was locked out of my locker and the attendant had to get the master chip to let me in).
Even though I had put my bathing suit on, I was told that I had to take a soap shower - no bathing suit allowed.
Finally, I stepped out into the cold air and onto the patio to the lagoon. Stone stairs lined with railings lead into the lagoon. I quickly stepped in. A layer of steam floats on the surface, obscuring the view into the lagoon. The sun was shing brightly, so it wasn't eerie. The water felt kind of like the Dead Sea - slimy, salty, minerally. I met Alex in the water, along with the "family" in our group who we kept bumping into at just about every stop in Iceland.
Alex and I swam across to the other side, to get to the pots of white silica, which are provided to smear on your face for a ten minute masque while you float around in the hot bath. We paddled all the way around the perimeter, to see all the nooks and crannies of the lagoon. One area was roped off for massages. The attendants stand in the water and work on the client who is floating on a raft. Wow. That looked cool! There wasn't enough time for a massage but it's a definite come-back-to!
The Blue Lagoon was our last scavenge of the trip; and from there, we drove to the airport.
In Iceland, the rules were different in that we were allowed to rent a car.
We had arrived at Hotel Borg at 4:30 in the afternoon yesterday and had one hour until our meeting. Alex and I walked out to get money at an ATM, get something to eat at Cafe Paris across the street, and find out where the tourist office was located.
At the meeting, we were told that we had until 4:00 PM Friday, when we were to meet at the gate at the airport for our 5:00 flight to Boston. That left 22 hours in Iceland, if we didn't sleep or eat.
The second the meeting ended, everyone bolted. Almost everyone ran upstairs (to their rooms, to call for rental cars, which were apparently delivered to the hotel). We made a beeline the two blocks to the tourist office, which was going to close in 15 minutes. We asked about rental cars. The lady at the desk advised that we take a taxi (waiting outside the door) to Budget's office at the bus station, but they close at 6:00. We got there in time to rent a small Hyundai Getz and to get directions for the Golden Circle. In the few minute cab ride to Budget's office, we skimmed the scavenge list and gleaned that we needed to get out of Reykjavik and focus on the geological formations. The guy in the Budget office gave us a map to the Golden Circle - the leading attractions. All three spots were on our scavenge list, but we hadn't figured that out yet. Budget Man said it would take about four hours to do the three things quickly:
1. Pingvellir (our scavenge was "world's first parliament building"; and it is the North Atlantic ridge, where the continents of Europe and America drift apart),
2. Geysir (thermal water jets - and where the word comes from), and
3. Gullfoss (a huge waterfall).
Clearly, we would have to start early in the morning. But first, how to use the remaining time in the evening?
Noting the bonus challenge of attending the symphony, we drove to the ticket office. But, bleah, we just didn't feel like it. We had just attended the Royal Danish Ballet the night before - top rate.
The lady in the symphony' ticket office, when asked, confirmed that over 200 seats were empty and the performance was in about one hour. So, instead of buying tickets from her, we peppered her with scavenge questions. Well, hey! It wasn't like anyone was banging down the box office door.
She was quite helpful in answering some questions and for telling us the locations of the restaurants and in deciphering the mandatory food challenges we hadn't figured out.
Svid is head of sheep (yuk).
Reykur lax is smoked salmon (OK)
Bloomor is like Scottish haggis (no thanks)
Hrutspungar is sheep testicles (no way).
We decided to substitute a public swimming pool for the symphony. Similar genre to the Blue Lagoon, but not nearly as swanky. We chose Laugardalslaug, one of the bigger ones, with a lot of amenities. At the pool, we bumped into the "family" - two teams travelling together - grandma, daughter, grandson and boyfriend. Very nice people; and they invited us to join them for dinner at Perlan, in a large rounded observatory that is the tallest building in Reykjavik. But first, we zipped over to the Reykjavic Art Museum to catch the walls of black curtain installation
Perlan was almost full.
We had a lovely dinner at Perlan, the revolving restaurant on top.
At about 10:45 we left the restaurant, stopped by to snap a pic of the Sun Voyager sculpture along the shoreline, and went to bed by midnight.

Even though we had set our alarms for 6:00 AM, we were both up by 5:30. We checked out and were in the car by 6:00. We looked for Sandholt Bakery (not open yet; didn't wnt to wait) and settled on a 24 hour store nearby. We were able to buy breakfast and some water and snacks for our lunar landscape trip. We did two scavenges in the 24 store - Skyr (delicious, thick yogurt) and Appolo brand licorice. We would have gotten both anyway, even if they weren't scavenges.
We got on the road and headed out inland to the Golden Circle. Throughout the day, we kept bumpimg into various teams. Mostly everyone was huddled, shivering, racing to get back in the car, out of the wind.
I wore 5 things on my top: t-shirt, silk sweater, ski underwear shirt, hoodie fleece sweatshirt, and windbreaker/raincoat (plus gloves and a neckie!) Iceland is cold today.
...But am anticipating a WARM arrival in Boston!

Iceland is the Icing on the Cake

Scavenging in Copenhagen ends at 11 AM Thursday. There were a few things in town that we didn't get to, so we set out to finish what we could.
We had to visit and photograph two addresses in Copenhagen where Hans Christian Anderson had lived. Most Danes we asked associate him with his birthplace and the museum in Odense, a town hours away from Copenhagen. Some offered the Copenhagen address on Nyhavn (the harbor), but our persistent challenge was to find the second, not-well-known location in Copenhagen. It was too early for the tourist office to be open, so we hung around the train station and attacked people on their way to work. Without exception, everyone stopped to listen to the question and tried to help. I seriously doubt I would be that nice if I were rushing to work and some tourist stopped me to ask a really stupid question. Finally, we got the answer from a cashier in a newsstand shop in the train station. She circled the street block on Alex's map but warned that there may not be a marker on the building. We went to the street block and loitered, asking everyone we could nab. Finally, a woman said she thought she knew, and pointed to a manhole cover on the sidewalk, decorated with Anderson's silhouette. We snapped the pic and moved on. That was a tough one! We had some fun with it because the Danes refer to him as H. C. Anderson. And the letter "H" is pronounced "ho" in Danish and the letter "C" is pronounced "say". Putting it together, the Danes pronounce the author's name so that it sounds like "Jose" - like we are looking for a Mexican guy.

We had time to do one more thing before the 11 AM deadline. Either we could tour the Carlsburg beer brewery (35 points and a free beer right after breakfast), or try again to get into a session of the Folketing (Congress) at the Christianborg Palace for 50 points. The brewery was a sure bet to get accomplished, but was probably a 30 minute trip each way and could be risky time-wise. We opted to gamble that Congress was in session, having missed it yesterday. Score! The session started at 10 AM. We passed through security screening and the cloakroom. We had to surrender everything - pocketbook and all, but NOT the camera. So, I gave up my purse to the coat check girl, who hung it on a peg with my rain jacket (rain the whole time we have been here). The guard showed us to the stairway and told us the number of steps (150, maybe?). You had to want it. Big climb up the palace stairs to the peanut gallery. At the top of the stairs was a guard desk. The guard had his eyes glued to a television monitor. Although one might assume he was watching closed circuit security cameras, he wasn't. The guard was riveted to an old rerun of an American TV show that looked like it might have been Hogan's Heroes.
We were seated in the Visitors' Gallery by 9:40 and just watched the chamber fill up with legislators, chilling out until the session started. We watched a few votes get posted on the electronic board - red or green dot, associated with the legislator's seat. We witnessed the proceedings for a little while, I snapped a few pictures, and we left with plenty of time for a leisurely stroll and an on-time arrival at our meeting.
Next stop: Iceland!

Copenhagen in Gulps

Sixteen hour day. This pace could start to get tiring. We "slept in" i.e. did not set an alarm. After a quick breakfast buffet at our ultra-modern cool-looking hotel on the water in Copenhagen, we took the train one stop to the main train station (Kobenhavn H), got tickets to Malmo, Sweden and were on the train moments before 8 AM. Alex knows so much about navigating Copenhagen, having lived here as a student. The only way he had gotten around was by walking and public transportation. Being on Alex's team is the BEST!
As bad as last evening's luck was with getting things accomplished, today's luck (and Alex's skill) ROCKED.
The big picture/bottom line of the day is that we completed 22 scavenges. Not in chronological order, but by type of activity, we:
1. Visited 2 museums (Glyptotek art museum - saw Van Gogh's Landscape from St Remy, a headless Apollo and Rodin's Burghers of Calais; and the Nationalmuseet - saw Sun Chariot and Royal Collection of Coins and Medals; but passed on the Erotica Museum because it is out of business).
2. Toured 1 castle (Rosenborg Slot, after strolling through the King's Gardens).
3. Visited 1 library (referred to as the Black Diamond, it is the Royal Library and is a striking angular black building situated on the waterfront -- an addition to the original grand library).
4. Climbed 1 tower (Rundetaarn, built in 1642 as an observatory and still used as one today), up its stone spiral ramp.
5. Saw 1 world clock (inside the Rathaus, and noticed that its time was off by one hour due to daylight saving time).
6. Visited the world's largest hostel (well, maybe...the desk clerk said it's the largest in Europe and Europe is in the world).
7. Went to 1 beach (Amager - to see what we could see - Germany across the water but it was too rainy to see Sweden and we held up our bathing suits to pose for the pictures).
8. Had beers in 2 bars (the "Library Bar" overlooking the waterfront at the Black Diamond and Bankerat, a funky bar decorated with weird composite sculptures of animal head skeletons and stuffed animals).
9. Ate 1 Danish hot dog (Rod Polse from a Polsevogn - mobile hot dog wagon; where we ordered Fransk style - in a bun with a mayo mix the Danish refer to as French Hot Dog Dressing). 10. Shopped in 1 toy store for Legos and found out what the name Lego means ("play well").
11. Searched in 1 cemetary for the grave of Soren Kierkegaard, in the rain, on bicycle, for one hour.
12. Rented 2 bicycles to do scavenges (bikes are scattered around the city and are free for use with an automated coin deposit mechanism so that you get your deposit back when you return the bike - SO BRILLIANT!)
13. Rode on 1 one-hour cruise of the canals
14. Produced 2 "public service announcement" videos (one for "No Diet Day" with Alex stuffing his face with candy, and the other offering a theory on why sculptures frequently involve men and horses). 15. Took 2 trains that ride over the Oresund bridge that links Sweden and Denmark (round trip to Malmo, Sweden, where we spent less than 1 hour and took the required 4 photos of typical Swedes - we snapped people biking, shopping, working and driving a Volvo with a NY Yankees hat; 3 commercial boats and 2 plazas).
16. Took 1 stroll on Nyhavns (pronounced "new houn" and is Copenhagen's signature completely charming, picturesque harbor), where we had dinner with Alex's Danish host family who he lived with almost five years ago and who are warm, comfortable, funny, and fabulously good-looking
17. Attended 1 performance of the Royal Danish Ballet, at the new performance hall on the waterfront. Our evening was the highlight of the day. The program was "Director's Choice" and included classical tu-tu-type work, mime, loud techno, edgy, funny,
provocative, and a bit of Hava Nagila thrown in.
A day well spent!

Copenhagen: Third and Final City Today

Our train arrived in Copenhagen around 6:30 PM. Because Alex lived here for his spring semester of junior year in college, this one is fun for us!
The challenge is in the strategy of what to choose and how to spend our time. We have flip-flopped on this. Our first decision was to shoot right up to Copenhagen from Frankfurt. We had entertained the possibilities of detours along the way, versus getting started right away with the multiple things to do in and around Copenhagen. We had eliminated Norway (far away and boring), Berlin (only points are for Checkpoint Charlie and we have both been there), Luxembourg to get your passport stamped (very long detour), Poland (to take a bike ride on Usedom Island - no thanks), or Heidelberg (half day detour, didn't seem worth it).
We roughed out a plan that put us in Copenhagen (CPH) to scavenge the first evening, go to Sweden the next day, return around dinnertime to CPH and finish up with CPH activities Thursday morning.
It sounded like a good plan but it wasn't. After we checked in to the hotel and dropped off our luggage, we set out scavenging. Everything we tried to do was closed. It was a useless endeavor. We tried to get tickets to the Royal Ballet which started in a half hour (sold out -- but we did get them for the next night). Walked to the King's Gardens (open), but the mission was to stroll through the gardens to visit the Rosenborg Castle (closed). We went to the place which we thought was the cemetary with Soren Kierkegaard's grave. It turned out to be a botanical garden and besides, it was closed. We earned our first points by taking a lovely stroll down the walking street Strøget (pronounced like a throat clearing), on to the Rathaus Plaza (no, it wasn't a Rat House - it is a magnificently decorative public building, where our scavenge was to see the World Clock inside. Literally, the door slammed in our faces. Closed. We managed to snap a pic of the sculptural column with a horn blower on top of it. Hah!
Throwing in the towel for the day, we gave ourselves a well-deserved treat of a stroll and dinner in Tivoli Gardens. The sun was setting, the twinkling lights had just been turned on and were a welcoming beacon. Said to be Walt Disney's inspiration for Disneyland, Tivoli is a delightful landscaped park with lakes, restaurants, music shells, theater, amusement park rides, bursting with flowers - and plunked right in the middle of the city. It is magical. The music drew us in down a curvy pathway. The scavenge was to find the Pantomime Theater. It was one of the first things we encountered and a show was in progress. We stood and chuckled at a few acts and then went to choose a restaurant.
It started out great. Nice menu, delicious appetizers, and while we waited for our entrees to come, we made a silly video challenge of a blind taste test comparing Tuborg and Carslburg beers. We thought we were pretty funny.
But then, a waitress delivered our dinners to the table next to us and they started eating OUR FOOD while complaining to the waitress that this was not what they ordered. It took over two hours in the restaurant. But we had a nice stroll afterwards and collapsed into bed at 11 PM.

Hurrying Through Hamburg

The most efficient train route to Copenhagen took us via Hamburg. In order to do a lot of the very do-able scavenges in Copenhagen and Sweden, we had very little time to spend in Hamburg, although about 24 scavenges could be done there. We worked out a schedule that had us arriving in Hamburg at about 10:30 and leaving at 1:28. Less than 3 hours to check our luggage at the train station, run around like crazy doing scavenges, and eat a Hamburger. We prioritized our order of doing things according to their location and point value. First was the 150-pointer, "Take a balloon ride over Hamburg". Due to the light rain as we stepped out of the station, we wondered if the balloon would be operating. We waited a few minutes in line at the bahnhof (train station) tourist information booth to ask if the balloon flies in the rain. Line too long. Plan B: Armed with a Lonely Planet Guide of Germany, this time in English, we set off to take the U-Bahn (trolley or subway - never did find out). We deciphered the direction, the stop, the fare, and then discovered that the entrance gate was closed off. Feeling pressed for time, we jumped in a taxi and asked for the balloon. The driver did not speak great English, but we think we made ourselves understood. The driver communicated that we did not need a taxi because the balloon was just on the other side of the train station and he hand-motioned the route. We started walking in the direction he pointed. Then, we second guessed ourselves, not confident that he understood. Consulting our map, we believed the balloon was in the opposite direction. About face; and off we marched. We saw a toursit loop bus idling in front of the train station, which we are now passiong for the second time. We stopped to ask the driver which way the balloon is. He pointed the way the taxi driver had pointed - the opposite of the direction in which we were now headed. About, about face! Now heading out a third time, and in the same direction in which we started, we finally spotted the balloon. It was firmly anchored and had the appearance that it was not taking off any time soon. Indeed, we entered the ticket seller's pavilion and he confirmed that it does not operate in the rain. Forty five minutes wasted.
Next, we set off to the prison, for a chamber of horrors show. With misgivings that it sounded touristy and expensive, we went anyway - mostly because it was 75 points. We bought two tickets for nearly $50 and the ticket seller told us to wait for the show to begin. We were greeted by a guy dressed in black tattered clothes with his face painted white, and fake blood dripping from scattered wounds. We had a brief chat with him. He asked where we were from; we said USA; he said we couldn't come in "HA HA HA HA HA". Not in the mood for that, it occurred to me to ask if we could just walk through the museum ourselves. Nope. It's a 90 minute show...AND it's in German. The English show is at a different time. We returned the tickets and got a full credit on the credit card. One hour wasted. Nothing to show for it except two taxi rides, brochures for things we did not do, and receipts for a round trip of transactions on my credit card.
OK. Reload. Another taxi. This time to try for the last two things we chose that were not clustered in walking distance. First was the Star Club. This one was a research find. The scavenge was to visit one of the three places the Beatles played in Hamburg. The Star Club is closed but you can go to the spot where it was. It is in the center of the sex district. The street has a banner over it saying something about table dancing. The Funky Pussy was across the street. We had the driver wait while we snapped a pic in front of the Star Club sign. Next, we had him drop us at the Rathaus (city hall). We went inside and took photos of the beautifully ornate interior.
Next was to video locals while asking them how many bridges there are in Hamburg. To our surprise, both people we asked said yes on the first try AND agreed to be videoed. Both had the same answer.
Question: How many bridges are there in Hamburg?
Answer: More than 100 and more than Venice. Both guys gave the same answer.
Next video, still in the rain, and amazing that people stop to talk with us. This one was to ask a few tourists where they are from (Belgium, Germany, Germany) and tell them about our trip.
We had a little over one hour to get to the train station, retrieve our bags, do a few scavenges and get on the train.
We found a soccer jersey for the home team, Pauli. We ate a hamburger and snapped a pic in front of the Hamburg sign. Hokey.
The train from Hamburg, Germany to Copenhagen includes a ferry crossing. The train drives right on to the ferry boat. The passengers must get off the train and go up into the lounges on the ferryboat for the 40 minute ride across the water. The boat is lovely, with duty free shops, restaurants, duty free shops, open air decks, and duty free shops. The loudspeaker announces countdown every ten minutes of the amount of time until the duty free closes.
Overall, the ferry ride was way cool!! And relaxing....

Fleeing Frankfurt

Less than one hour after checking into the Frankfurt Intercontinental hotel, we had to assemble in the lobby to go to dinner as a group. This was the first meal all together since our send-off banquet in Seattle. The dinner also marked the addition of Pamela, Bill's wife, to the group. For the first week, Bill was accompanied by Petra, his 13 year old, smart charming daughter. The second week, he was solo. Yesterday, at the Frankfurt airport, Pamela appeared, to join us for the rest of the way. It was great to see her happy face as we exited the immigration hall. Pamela was at the send-off in Seattle but stayed back. She is the operations and execution queen.
Before leaving for our dinner, we had a brief meeting so that Bill could outline the next leg: Nordic Europe.
We have from the moment we finish our banquet on Tuesday evening, May 4 until 11 AM Thursday, May 7 to meet in Copenhagen, with 99 possible scavenges along the way. They range in point value from 20 (have a cold drink from Ole Skram in Copenhagen) to 500 (take the ferry from Oslo to the Viking Museum and you must take the train to Oslo or back to Copenhagen - no planes). Bill collected the books so we could enjoy dinner. He has assembled a great group of travelers and we have fun together. Although we are competing, we are cooperating and we enjoy each others' company.
Dinner was at Paul Allner (sp?) We ordered beers (Bart and Trevor had two REALLY big beers and the other Alex had TWO of the REALLY big ones.
The food was sausages, sauerkraut, weiner schnitzel - typical German food and quite tasty when accompanied by beer.
Before leaving for dinner, Alex had posted his status on Facebook, saying he was going to Copenhagen. Moments later, he heard from his host mother of the family that lives in the Copenhagen suburb where he stayed junior year in college. It seems that our schedule may work out so we can meet the family in Nyhavn (the colorful harbor area) for a drink later tomorrow night (also, conveniently, a 25 point scavenge).
After dinner, Alex and I (who are VERY excited about these next few days) jumped into a taxi and went right to the train station. Our quick perusal of the scavenges and point values suggested to us that we should leave Frankfurt ASAP, head to Hamburg, Copenhagen, Sweden and back to Copenhagen. We mapped out the start of our schedule and decided we would take the 6:58 AM train from Frankfurt to Hamburg. But first, we needed to do the mandatories in Frankfurt. There were six choices for the mandatory food challenges and we chose "Enjoy a Frankurt cliche, eat a Frankfurter in Frankfurt". Even though we had just finished dinner, Alex was up to the task of eating just a bit more. Easy to find in the train station. Check. Done. The other mandatory in Frankfurt required locating and visiting the Fountain of Justice. We planned to take a taxi, have him wait while we snapped a photo and then contine on to our hotel.
At that point, we didn't have any information on Frankfurt, so we asked the train schedule guy where the Fountain of Justice is located. He wrote out the name of the place where she is located. Armed with the paper saying "Romerberg", we showed the taxi driver and made our intentended stop known. He got it. (Unfortunately, no German-speakers on this Germanically-named team). When he pulled up to the statue, we did a double-take. The mandatory Fountain of Justice scavenge is right in front of the restaurant where we had dinner less than one hour earlier!! Very clever, Bill! The taxi returned us to our hotel. We settled the account so that we could bolt in the morning without checking out; and I asked for a map.Bill appeared at our side, asking if we were checking out of the hotel already. He stood with us as I had asked the desk clerk to confirm the walking directions to the train station, which Alex already knew, but I confirm as a habit. Bill informed us "That's cheating". What a downer after all we had just accomplished it's all in his hands.

Is Frankfurt a Fakeout?

I slept until a luxurious (?) 7 AM on our day off. After our breakfast and visiting with some fellow travelers, Alex and I decided to go into the medina and visit the souks (markets), which we had only seen at night after they closed. The morning air was fresh and made for a lovely walk. The entrance at Bab el Bahr, one of the main arteries into the old medina, was less than a five minute walk from the hotel. As we entered the old district down its main road, the first souk we encountered was clearly contemplating tourists. We saw rows of items bearing the word "Tunisia". But, as we penetrated further, we could see that the souks are clustered by types of goods. Clearly, vestiges of the old souks remain. There was an obvious section for freshly butchered meats, another for fabrics, etc. But, the global marketplace for goods has updated the souks. We wandered into a lane with vendor after vendor of brightly colored, cheaply made plastic goods manufactured in China, wrapped in clear and sold in bulk. Another area was devoted to "designer" jeans, t-shirts and underwear. One section I just had to get a photo of was a string of shops with a profusion of bunches of dried herbs, alternating with athletic shoes - Nike, Adidas, etc. One shop had both hanging on its walls: Herb and Shoe (Urban Shoe?).
When we got souked out, we headed back to the hotel to blog and chill for an hour before the 11 AM meeting.
In the lobby, Bill told us that we need to leave for the airport in 30 minutes for a flight to Frankfurt.
We are all thinking that is just a stopover. Lots of speculation about what's next. We will know very soon. I am writing this as we fly over tidy green European farms. Feels like home, compared to where we came from.

Taking in Tunisia

Out the door at 6:15 AM. Quick breakfast - well...quick coffee and then grabbed some breads and cheeses to wrap in napkins and stuff into my backpack for later.
We took a taxi to the train station in downtown Tunis that services southerly travel - Barcelona station. We forgot to make sure that the driver turned the meter on and when we pointed it out,..."Kaput", he said...which meant negotiating a fare. The day begins with taxi driver shenanigans.
Our 7 AM train was to Sousse. There, the challenge was to climb the walls of the ribat - the fortress. It was built in the 9th century in a chain of fortresses stretching across the Mediterranean coastline to defend North Africa from European invaders Above the main gate, a room has four slits in the floor through which boiling olive oil was poured on enemies. From the tower, there was a beautiful view toward the Mediterranean, across the rooftops. We had over three hours before the next train, so we made a list of the scavenges that did not have to be done right in Tunis at specific locations. We went to the morning fish market and made a video of our choices. We visited the hamman - the bath. It was quite hard to find in the twisting streets of the old city. We kept asking directions at every turn, to try to reconfirm, but often were advised to retrace our steps. A kind man with a lovely baritone voice approached and said he had overheard us asking for directions. He offered to lead us there. We weren't far, as the bath house was at the base of the mosque, but we never would have found it - Bain Maure Sidi Bouraoui. Alex had his trusty travel towel with him for the photo op since the scavenge required: "take a towel".
We took a taxi to the Sousse Sunday Market, which our guidebook said said sprawls endlessly along the Sousse/Sfax road and that you can buy anything from a car to a camel. The scavenge was to buy something. We tried haggling for a decent price for a face/neck scarf for Sherry and one for me, decorated with gold-colored coins, but the vendor wouldn't budge from his inflated price and he bothered Alex by tugging on his shirt. We bought cold drinks to go instead. OK, unimaginative, but effective. Next was the hunt for the Casino to collect a chip. After asking about 8 people and getting mixed answers, we found that the Casino had closed, but we snapped a pic in front. Next we tried to find live flamingoes to take a picture with. There is a zoo in Sousse but we found out that the birds are in a separate location. We went to the bird exhibit, which is a tired, ill-maintained park across the street from the beach. The boulevard alinging the beach is reminiscent of the one in Nice, France (which I think is called Boulevard des Anglais). There were only two birds! One was a slender, beautiful crested something or other that I remember seeing on safari in Tanzania. The other looked like a turkey. No flamingo. Next, we tried to "take a camel for a walk in the desert". By asking people all day, we learned that none of the places we were going were in the desert, so we improvised. We bought a toy stuffed camel, walked across the boulevard to the beach, placed him in the sand and "walked" him. Funny pix! And, better than nothing.
Back to the train station for train to El Jem. The 11:48 ran about 15 minuted late and as it approached, a crush of people and suitcases pushed into us and scrambled, grabbed, shoved, yanked to push up the stairs onto the train. We had assigned seats. Ha ha ha. The four of us elbowed and wriggled to secure a seat, none of which were together. But, Alex said he had seen some fellow travellers already seated (presumably having boarded in Tunis), in the first car which seemed to be first class. Indeed! We moved into first class, and although our designated seats were taken, there were four seats open and nobody standing in the aisle, pushing into me. Plus, we got to visit with the three teams who were travelling together - Bev and Buz, Steve and Bart, and Jackie and Sylvia. So nice to see friends and compare travel experiences and information! They slept in a bit and got a later train.
We got off the train at El Jem (also spelled El Djem) to "film a team scene from Gladiator where they filmed the movie at El Jem Roman Coliseum". When we got off the train in the quiet town. There was very little around, and no taxis. We all started walking in search of a taxi. After about one minute, turning the first corner, at the end of a short sleepy lane lined with little local stores looms a HUGE, intact Roman coliseum. It is untouched! No lousy attempts at restoration, no barricades, no tour buses. You just walk up to the thing, buy a ticket from the lone, modest ticket stall and you walk in. The coliseum is only slightly smaller than the one in Rome. We had full run of the place. We wandered down the corridors, climbed the stairs to the top, and went on the center floor. There, we shared the video stage with six of the other teams who arrived all around the same time. It was pretty funny - a bunch of crazy Americans making goofy 15 second Gladiator videos.
Actually, Americans are pretty rare here. One taxi driver told us he has only met two groups. People frequently guess that we are Canadian.
We wanted to press on to Kaiouran but needed a taxi for the ride, which was over one hour drive. The trains only go north/south along the coast. No rail service in the westerly direction we needed. The bus was a possibility but we couldn't afford the time to wait for it. We asked a waiter in a restaurant facing the coliseum to call a taxi and learned we need a special tourist taxi for the long trip. Something about yellow taxis can't go on the long roads. He pointed to a nice, clean, mechanically sound-looking white AC SUV, with a dome on top that said "Tourist Taxi". It looked comfy, for what we understood from Bev and Buz was a bad road. Three of those taxis were parked alongside the outdoor cafe where we lunched. We had watched small groups of Germans and other tourists hop out to visit the coliseum. We tried unsuccessfully to hire one, but they were taken for the day. My French is hardly fluent, but it is a big asset in that it allows access to more people to ask questions of than just those who speak English. While we waited the half hour for the taxi to drive to El Jem, we ate at the restaurant and banges out the last two mandatory food challenges: Berber lamb and Berber pizza. Berber refers to the nomads in the area. We ordered lamb kebabs which were grilled on a barbecue just like we do at home. It was served with french fries (pommes frites - deference to the French). To get the pizza in, I wandered across the lane to the pizza restaurant, also facing the coliseum like the one restaurant we were seated at. I ordered a pizza and when it was ready, I walked back over for "take out" across the street. The four of us posed with the pizza for the food evidence pics, and then ate it, along with the kebabs.
Our taxi driver appeared just as the restaurant bill came. Having asked around of other restaurant patrons and the waiter, we were armed with some data points to negotiate the rate. As usual, he started at double where we thought it should end. Settling on 75 dinars which was higher than we hoped, we followed him to his car. Surprise!! Not only wasn't it a comfy safe-looking tourist taxi or even a yellow taxi, it was a small private car Peugeot. We were over a barrel time-wise, so resigned, the four of us squeezed in. First stop: gas station and the driver wants us to pay for the gas, plus payment in full of the fee. Ken in the front seat: "No. You get half now and you can pay for gas with what we gave you". OK OK.
He warmed up to us and gave us all Arabic names. Mine was Shaquira. We named the driver Obama.
As we had been warned, Tunisian drivers drive too fast, are aggressive about passing on two lane roads, and ignore you when you ask them to slow down. We lived to tell about it. Part of our not-particularly-well-negotiated pricing package with our driver was that when we arrived in Kaiouran (pronounced "Care Wan"), he would drive us to see the three elements of the scavenge and then get us a driver who could return us to Tunis (he couldn't take us all that way). We did not want to be stranded, so we made his payment conditioned on his securing us a ride back.
The main attraction in Kaiouran is the Great Mosque of Sidi Uqba, the fourth most important in Islam, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Non-Muslims are not allowed to "visit" it. So basically, we paid a lot of money and time to look at the outside wall of a fourth-rate mosque. Besides "looking" at the mosque, the scavenge required visiting the medina ("old city" - where we already were because that's where the mosque is) and make a short video of "your favorite vendor giving you his pitch". Our taxi parked alongside a souvenir shop across the street from the Grand Mosque. As we squeezed out of our cramped car to take a pic of the mosque's exterior wall and stretch our legs, a vendor from the shop dashed out and made a beeline to us, rattling his pitch in English. Pushing the video button on the camera, I recorded while he was talking and got the pitch scavenge without even trying. His gig is that the rooftop of his shop allows for a great view to spy and take pictures over the mosque wall, into its courtyard. No thank you; but thanks for the fervent pitch. Final element was to find the street that doubled as Cairo in Raiders of the Lost Ark. An English-speaking, purported university student (maybe/maybe not), was in earshot of our discussions about the spurned offer for a view and lining up a driver to take us to Tunis (that rolls off the tongue nicely..."Take us to Tunis"). He heard our inquiry to see the "Cairo" street and he offered to walk us there, saying it was difficult to find through the winding lanes of the medina. As we walked and walked and twisted and turned, our doubts loomed. Chatting with him, trying to trust him, as the streets got emptier and narrower and darker, I spoke up and we bailed. We told him we were in a rush and our driver was waiting (true and true) and we turned back, madly snapping pictures along th way, of hard-to-believe winding North African streets, hoping that one of them was right. Better to risk the wrong movie set pic than to get jumped in the bowels of the medina by the "university student" and his friends. Neurotic? Maybe. But, so what?
We got into the car and settled in for the ride that ended up being about two and a half hours. Prior to leaving Kaiouran, he had told us that he could not take us all the way in to Tunis but would find a taxi for us before he left us on the side of the road. Again, the deal was half pay up front so he could get gas; balance upon arrival. The road surface was fine - probably new since Bev and Buz had done the trip on an unpaved road a few years ago.
As we approached Tunis, the driver pulled over about 2km outside of the city and said we had to get out and get into a taxi. He flagged a yellow taxi for us. We paid him and swapped cars for a quick few scavenges before 10 PM deadline. We headed right for the Zitouna mosque which we tried to "visit", but got yelled at in Arabic by a disembodied voice as we tried to advance past the doorway. I stuck my arm in, crooked it around, snapped a pic and retreated quickly. Sleazy, but we got the points. Besides, the camera allowed us to see what we could not have seen with our own eyes.
We walked through the medina, hoping to see the souks, or markets and do a bunch of scavenges. But, it was too late. The last call to prayer had already occurred and the shops were locking down for the night. All that work plotting out the souk route was for naught. We had hoped to visit the fabrics and lamps, have a chichi (hookah) and more. Crossing off much of our remaining checklist as impossible, we did the few remaining ones that time allowed: snap a photo at Bab el Bahr, the old french gate to the city, go to the central market, take a team photo at Bab el Khadra (a double old gate into the old walled city), and buy something to eat at Halfaouine (after much struggle, learned that it is pronounced "half a ween") - we bought a sorry-looking shriveled orange from one of the remaining street vendors. Done whether we were done or not. It was 8 PM and we had two hours until meeting.
We showered (much needed) and walked outside to get a light dinner near the hotel.
We stayed at Hotel l'Afrique, which is on the avenue that looks like a mini Champs Elysee. The evening breeze felt heavenly on my very-appreciated-clean skin. The avenue is lined with Parisian style cafes. We chose one a few doors down from the hotel and ordered familiar, safe and delicious comfort food after a 14 hour day. Alex had a 4-cheese pizza and I had quiche and salad. A little adjustment in this Muslim country is that instead of "jambon" (ham), they use "jambon de dinde fume" (smoked turkey faux ham). My nod to northern African cuisine at dinner was to order the tea, which was quite delicious. It was very sweet, served in a small glass cup the size of a small juice glass, and had a layer of pine nuts floating across the top. It was delicious.
At the meeting, we learned that we had the "day" off tomorrow, in that we will meet again at 11 AM to learn where we go next, and there will be no scavenges all day.
Wahoo! Sleep in! No going to bed with my mind racing about the next day's plans!

Two Days in Tunis

It was a two and a half hour flight from Istanbul, Turkey to Tunis, Tunisia. All I knew about Tunisia is that French people like to vacation here. It is the northernmost country in Africa and the north coast is on the Mediterranean. Libya is to the east and Algeria is to the west. The southern part of the country is in the Sahara Desert. The country is about the size of Florida. It's a Muslim country and the 2 percent who aren't Muslim are Christian and Jewish. Arabic is the language but many people speak French, and some speak English in the capital city but rarely elsewhere. The weather is in the 70s, sunny - kinda perfect.
After checking in, we had one hour before getting the scavenges. Two thirds into the trip, we have the routine down. Find an ATM. Find a bookstore with English guidebooks and scope out what we want to buy so that when the clock starts, we can come right back, buy the info and hit the ground running. Get something to eat or drink if we need to. Day pack stays packed. (Every night, I replenish water, granola bars, wipes, recharge blackberry and camera).
The Tunis challenges are a bunch of small local run-all-over-the-place like we chose for Istanbul; or big long trips out of town. For Tunis, teaming is allowed for the whole stay - partly in deference to the teams of women. We are teamed with Sherry and Ken. We decided to plan our big outings for the second day and stay pretty local the first afternoon, since we were starting out after 2 PM.
We took a taxi right out to the National Museum of Bardo, a beautiful former palace, and located Eros and Apollo, then to the train for two destinations. First was the absolutely charming town of Sidi Bou Said, a little village of cafes, resaturants and shops. All the buildings are white and trimmed in brilliant blue (think Santorini) with orange trees punctuating the white and blue. Eye candy!!
Back on the train (more like a trolley, but through long stretches of open area). For our second destination, we went to Carthage, where we had two scavenges: locate Byrsa Hill and the Roman Ampitheater; and Tophet site and explain on video what happened. We found a taxi driver who knew absolutely nothing about Carthage (we later realized that he was from Tunis). Although Carthage is the best known of Tunisian archeological sites, the ruins are scattered throughout a residential area. In fact, we had to go in between people's driveways to get to the Tophet Sanctuary. We are not 100 percent sure that we found the right ampitheater on Bursa Hill, but we asked the Carthage museum staff, and people along the way. It was quite suprising that people in Carthage don't know their own ruins. We have an AA Essential Series guidebook and a Lonely Planet in French (they didn't have it in English). Both showed the ruins we sought, with street locations pinpointed; but it was really hard for the taxi driver to find anyone to point them out - including three policemen! When we finally located Tophet, we made a short video explaining it. In what looks like somebody' back yard, wedged between two suburban private homes, the Tophet Sanctuary is a grassy lawn scattered with upright stone cylinders. There are more than 20,000 urns containing the ashes of boys aged between 2 and 12, sacrificed by the Carthiginians in the 8th century BC. The remains were cremated as an offering to the sun god Baal Hammon and Tanit, the moon goddess.
We took a taxi back to Tunis, snapped a quck picture of the exterior of the art nouveau-style National Theater, and went back to the hotel. Fifteen minutes to freshen up and we went right out for dinner to one of the mandatory food scavenges - Dar Bel Hadj in the old city. To get there, you take a taxi to the edge of the medina (walled city) and the restaurant has a golf cart waiting to take you in through the winding streets. It was dark and the market stalls were closed. The driver flew very fast through the narrow winding streets and stopped at a big wooden studded door, which was opened by a beautful woman draped in silk. We were beckoned inside. From the outside, all you see is a big whitewashed wall in the market. You would never know there is a reataurant behind it. It's a beautiful palace and the dining room is in a 4 story atrium with only about 30 seats. We were so excited to walk into this lovely place, be served wine and a lovely plate of appetizers. But, we were full after the apps, didn't want dinner, and when it arrived, nobody liked theirs anyway. We were so tired. We needed to go to bed, so we rushed the check, took the golf cart to the cab, and then to the train station to plan tomorrow. Then, finally! To bed around 10:30 with a 6:10 wake up call requested from the hotel (supplemented by both our blackberries).

I Recommend the Three Massage Package

The Instanbul scavenge of "Enjoy a traditional public Hammam - not at a hotel" was best at the end of the day, right after jostling through the Covered Bazaar.
Armed with walking directions from the Blue Mosque, on the recommendation of our waiter from lunch, we walked the brief distance to Cagaloglu Hammam. Thinking we were off the beaten path, we were surprised to see displayed a reprint of the cover of Patricia Schultz's book, "1,000 Places to See Before You Die". And it was! Cagaloglu is over 300 years old. Prior patrons purportedly include Franz Liszt, Florence Nightingale and Cameron Diaz.
Alex and I agreed to meet in one hour and fifteen minutes at the fish restaurant around the corner. I said goodbye and went into the Ladies' entrance. I passed through a curtain of beads into a square chamber. A woman at a wooden desk on the right greeted me with a warm smile and good English. She produced a price list of about 4 different pricing options. I chose the Oriental something-or-other because it would take about one hour and included bath and massage as well as use of the changing room and towel rental. It cost 110 Turkish Lire or 55 Euros - neither of which I had enough of. I asked for the closest ATM, got the money and returned in a few moments. I paid for my chosen package and then she asked if I would like to buy my own scrub cloth for them to use for the exfoliating scrub. I interpreted that to mean, "Would you like the used cloth that has somebody else's dead skin, bacteria and other diseases in it, or would you like a new one?". I bought the new one. Ten more lire. She showed me to my "cabin" and handed me a key on a heavy brass pendant. The room was ringed with closet-like rooms, or cabins. Each cabin has hooks to hang clothes, a mirror, small counter below the mirror, a cot/bed, and a hairdryer affixed to the wall. They are trimmed in wood, fitted with frosted glass in the doors below neck level and clear glass above neck level. (Note on neck level: Not for me. The frosty glass ended just above my waist. No privacy for me. And I dried my hair at the end by glancing into the mirror at my elbows moving around). As instructed, I took everything off, hung it in my cabin, tucked my pocketbook (with my credit cards, ATM card, money, blackberry, entire life if it got stolen...) Behind the door and wrapped myself in the tablecoth-looking blue plaid fabric (not a towel), put on the pink plastic clogs and followed her to the intermediate room. The walls and floor were covered with white marble veined in grey. That led to the "hararet", the hot room, which is a quite warm, a bit steamy, and is filled withthe sound of running water. It is a grand, circular room with a high-domed ceiling. All marble, it has a large octagonal raised slab platform in the center where eight women are massaged at a time. The floors are slick with water and soap bubbles. My escort took my hand and led me all the way across the floor to the far side, where the walls were lined with cisterns. Lukewarm water was running constantly, spilling over onto the floor and into the channels which drain it away. She took away my tablecloth and cabin key and motioned to me to sit on the floor. She used a metal pan to scoop water and splash it over me repeatedly. She motioned to me to do that and signaled 5 miutes for her (break time?). I sat and watched. About 25 of us women, all white and naked were scattered about the room, in various stages of the process. The ones who were being bathed and massaged were lying on the outer edge of the slab in the room's center. The masseuses/attendants sit or kneel to do their work. When it was my turn she called to me "Lady", she smiled, and offered me a hand so I don't slip on the floor. She led me to the slab, laid me down with a small flat leather (plastic?) pillow under my head. First she washed me with water from neck down, all over and she had me turn over and do it again. Round two was the exfoliation scrub with my own personal scrubber. She grimaced and showed me the dirt rolls that peeled off of me. I sheepishly said "India" (when we compared notes later, Alex said he had the same thing happen to hin, too). Then she massaged again. Third treatment was the string mop. Well, it looked like a mop head with strings about 2 feet long, except they were made of something spongy. She used a deep bucket of very sudsy water, sloshed it over me and swung the mop around like a car wash. Massage the third and final time. The massages were more like a little shoulder rub and quick foot rub. The main event was the bathing. When it was all finished, she took my hand and placed me at the cistern again. She sat me down and shampooed my hair. Then, she motioned for me to rinse my body and that I am finished. I could have sat and relaxed some more in the steamy room, but I knew Alex would be waiting. I was given a gift - fresh underpants! I dried my hair, put on my gift and dressed to meet Alex around the corner for a beer and comparing stories at the fish restaurant.

May Day in Istanbul

It is international workers' day and our hotel is steps away from Taksim Square, where there were deadly riots in 1977 on May Day. Workers and unions were planning an event so the authorities were taking precautionary measures and closed the entire area around the square. May Day is particularly sensitive this year because the severe economic downturn has cost many people their jobs. At our breakfast meeting to hand out the scavenges Bill revised the plan by excising two areas that police cordoned off - Taksim Square and two of the boat launch areas. Of course, we had to figure out and plot the scavenges before we would know whether to cross them off.
Actually, Alex and I had seen some serious equipment assembled yesterday in Taksim squre but didn't understand why it was there. A heavy metal temporary fence cordoned off an area packed with shiny black police motorcycles with high windshield guards. Big black ominous machines that looked like earth movers, with cow catchers on the front, and heavily grated windows, with the word "Polisi" (sp?) painted in white. Also, the hotel left a little note on the pillow, notifying us that some road closures were planned (perhaps a delicate euphemism?). Taksim is a major trolley hub, so today's plans were going to require some serious maneuvering. Bill walked us through the diligence he had done on the anticipated demonstration and was comfortable that if we avoided the hot areas we should be fine. I write at the end of the day and we had no inkling of trouble, other than seeing lots of police (some leaning against walls and yawning) and roadblocks. However, at the meeting tonight, we learned that riot police did use tear gas and water guns on demonstrators.
We spent about one hour figuring out the scavenges and plotting out their locations.
We started at the Galata Tower, from which there is a great view of the city and the rivers. (The clue was the Asian tower where the Birdman made his alleged 17th century flight. Legend has it that some guy donned wings, jumped off the tower and flew across the Bosphorus Strait). We walked across the Galata bridge and took the team photo, which we do by either stopping someone and asking them to take it, or by having Alex reach his left arm out and snap us together. Many of our photos, especially the food evidence photos, are taken like this. We show the food going into our mouths, the right side of my face and the left side of Alex's face. This is not a photo safari.
We checked out the boat schedules to Sariyer - wouldn't work for us. We didn't look into the schedules for the bonus point trips to the Prince Islands and other river-access scavenge destinations because they would probably take 4 or 5 hours and we wanted to do some of the scavenges in the city. Later, we heard that the 5 teams who went together to Princes' Islands had a fabulous time and likened it to Capri. Oh well, you can't do everything.
Ditching the boat ride idea, we went into the Spice Bazaar and bought a trinket as required (eyeball keychain for Max). Then, because it was noon and a designated food scavenge, Rumeli Cafe was nearby, we stopped for lunch. The waiter was a willing subject for a 15 second video on International workers' day. He addressed the questions we posed regarding employment benefits (paid medical coverage and 2 weeks unpaid vacation which he will take in Italy, letting his inlaws come visit at a different time while he is working, rather than use his vacation time to travel to quiet Eastern Turkey) and his view on the May Day demonstration (that unions and government workers have it very good but push for more). We also asked him if he had a particular hammam (Turkish bath) to recommend. We wanted to do the bath scavenge and had already gotten a name from one of Alex's friends. Facebook has been amazing for Alex. Because he is posting his trip updates on Facebook, he has met friends in Seattle, Bangkok and Delhi. The waiter looked at the name and said it was very tourisitic, and that he recommended a different bath which he goes to and was near the restaurant. We decided to use the waiter's recommendation and tucked away the directions for later.
We visited Hagia Sofia, which was built as a church in 537 and was used as a church for over 900 years, until it was converted for use as a mosque. The mosaics are beautiful, but very few remain. I am struck that the exact opposite thing happened in Spain, where the mosques were taken over by Christians and converted to churches. Next was to find the Little Hagia Sofia, a quite small mosque tucked in a residential neighborhood. We had been asking people all day what and where it was. We got conflicting answers but a consistent unanimity on the general area where it was. Fortunately, we bumped into fellow travelers Bev and Buz, and Sylvia and Jackie who had just come from there. We swapped information on where Rumeli Cafe, the food scavenge was that we had just finished. We made plans to all meet for dinner at 7:30 to see a whirling dervish to try to satisfy the scavenge of visiting the temple where the Whirling Dervishes perform and catch a performance. We located the temple (near Galata Tower), but it was closed. We were told it probably would not be happening today. Since the Dervish wasn't doing his thing today, we figured we'd try this substitute with the group - besides, it's fun to get together. They also informed us that they had just come from trying to do the scavenges in the Covered Bazaar, but the crowds were so thick you couldn't get in. They were advised by a few shopkeepers to come back around 4 PM when it would be less crowded. Armed with that helpful information, we deferred our plans to visit the Covered Bazaar
and grabbed a cab to do a drive-by photo of a particular aqueduct, and then to Eyup's mosque and tomb. Beautiful spot outside of central Istanbul, with a pedestrian plaza area surrounding the mosque. According to our lame guidebook, the types of people who frequently go to Eyup's tomb to pray are: "the boys to be circumcised' the hopeless patients in search for a remedy, and the sports teams to play national games". There are intensely decorated blue and green tiles marking the entrance to Eyup's tomb, and which were easy to find because a crowd was gathered at the spot. We took off our shoes with the crowd and shuffled into the small (20 x 20 foot?) mosque. Everyone in the brightly colored (but darkened) tile room was standing in the same position: serious-expressioned, facing forward, with arms bent at the elbows like they were holding cafeteria trays except that their hands were cupped open as though about to receive liquid to be poured into them. I felt uncomfortable, like an uninvited voyeur, and even though my body was completely clothed with no skin showing and my head wrapped in a long shawl, I know I stood out as not belonging, by virtue of my height and microfibre quik dry pants. I gently jostled through those praying and slid out the exit. Alex (who doesn't look like much of a reverant Muslim Turk either), was steps behind me.
We went out to the main square to look for a taxi. First, we made a quick stop at the ATM. The ATMs in Istanbul are frequently clustered together in a freestanding kiosk, where three banks' machines are lined up side by side, with an awning to help protect from rain and sun glare. HSBC, Bank Garanti and the other one. All seem to be on Plus, Cirris, Visa, Mastercard. This city is EASY!!
We took a taxi back to the Covered Market. By the way, our taxi rip off rate is about 50 percent. We have succeeded in controlling the fare, it's just that we sometimes end up on longer, indirect routes at higher cost. However, we mostly get around by walking and the city is glorious to walk in.
Kapali Carsi (the Covered Bazaar) is a market on steroids. There are 18 gates into it, 3500 shops, 15,000 tradesmen and 80 streets and roads inside of it. Historically,
It was a shopping and trade center and slave market. At the beginning of the 19th century, people running away from the Russian revolution brought antiques with them. We had 6 scavenges to do inside, plus a mandatory food challenge just outside one of the gates, to find the freestanding counter at Gulluoglu's and try some su borek (a delicious cheese pastry in phyllo that tastes kinda sorta like a savory cheese kugel). The scavenges inside the Covered Bazaar seemed to be designed to get us in the guts of it and engaged in talking with vendors and getting answers. Find the Old Book Market. Have a beverage at Sark Kahvesi. Name three people who have purchased carpets from Sisko Osman (answer: Queen Beatrix of Holland, Harvey Keitel and Christy Turlington - all of whose photos while in the store were on the wall - and maybe Linda Fain too, but I didn't notice her picture). Buy an Iznik blue something of your choice (signed piece from a region of Turkey - we got a small pretty bowl). Find some matrioshka (nesting) dolls from Russia.
Q: Over the entrance is a quote. Who wrote it and what does it say?
A: "God Loves Tradesmen", from Abdulhamid II.
We did all those things including sitting down for having the drink (Turkish coffee for Alex, cold Coke for me), in one hour. Off to the baths!!! I will do a separate blog on that.
After the bath, we went to Cafe Mesale, next to the Blue Mosque, for dinner and dervish. Because it was raining by now, we weren't surprised that nobody else showed up as planned. We wanted to stay anyway. The food was wonderful. Our kind of food. Delicious meze plates of roasted eggplant in olive oil, garlic yogurt, grilled lamb, chicken, vegetables and rice. Yum! The dervish joined the live musicians around 8:30 and we got to see him spin around. The Dervish is a handsome slender man, dressed in a white jacket, a long full white skirt, and a fez. He spins around in place like a top while the music whips into a frenzy. One would think he would stagger over sideways or throw up or fall down - or at least switch direction. I write this in complete ignorance, as we didn't ask the waiter or anyone else, for an explanation and the almost useless guidebook was silent on the subject of whirling dervishes. I suppose that unless I remember to google it when I get home, even though I have seen one and took four pictures of him, I may need to continue using the expression "Whirling Dervish" in ignorance of what it really means.
Back to the hotel by cab via a ridiculous route that plumped up the fare even though we called the driver on it. We got back with time to spare before the meeting.
To Tunis, Tunisia Tomorrow! Ta Ta.

Thrilled in Turkey

Istanbul is beautiful! The weather is spectcular! The streets are clean! We feel safe! It is such a contrast to India!
But, even if we had not come to Istanbul from Delhi, we would have loved it anyway.
We arrived to the hotel at 11 AM, after a 7 hour night flight from Delhi. The meeting was scheduled for 12:30, giving us an hour and a half to wash up, do "personal management" like laundry, unpack (never), etc. We dumped our stuff and went outside to change money and get some food. The weather is a glorious 60 or so. Some locals walk around in ski jackets but we were wearing t shirts and were comfortable.
The ATM offered three options: Turkish Lire, Euros or US Dollars. We chose Turkish - and not surprisingly, some places accept only lire.
We found a place that serves doner kebaps, a sandwich that Alex got excited about - basically like schwarma that is served in Israel. It's made from beef shaved from a big hunk on a spit. It turned out to be a mandatory food challenge so we had to eat another one later but that was ok.
I made a quick purchase of a light shawl for visiting mosques and for wrapping around my neck in some attempt to look fashionable (a bit of a non sequitor since I am wearing comfortable walking shoes and quick-dry clothes). We finished all that and got to the meeting a few minutes early.
We learned that we will actually stay in the same hotel for two nights. The scavenges in Istanbul will be two separate sets of one day each. Today we went from about 1 PM until the deadline at 10 PM. Alex and I did at least part of all of them except one. We did not get to the Kariye Museum to see the fresco of Jesus yanking Adam and Eve from their coffins.
First stop was to get a map from the hotel. Theirs was particularly awful, with little detail, and no guidebook or magazine to offer. We tried to find a place nearby that sold a guide book or a map but simply could not. We are staying in the Taksim area of the city. We went to two bookstores and there were no guidebooks or English books at all. Absolutely loving walking on a beautiful walking street in the warm but not too warm sun, it took us a while to get our act together. We sat in a cafe for coffee and tried to plot a route using crummy cartoony tourist maps and little information. Few people speak English.
Finally, at 2:15, we logged the first scavenge: walk through the Passage of Flowers. Without spending a lot of time studying all of the scavenges, we decided to head right for the area where Topkapi Palace is located. We took the tunel, the world's shortest and the third oldest subway. It is a 2 minute ride. Very cute. We took a taxi the rest of the way. Having been warned that Istanbul taxi drivers are notoriously conniving, we agreed on a rate in advance and made sure we had the right change. Apparently they almost always pretend they have no change and keep all the money. And worse, if you give them a big bill, they pretend to drop it, pretend to retrieve it, and then show you a smaller bill, insisting that you have made only partial payment. Folks who have been here before all had similar stories and Bill told us that you can expect to pay too much for a taxi in Istanbul, whether by scam or by contract. We chose the contract option - negotiated a probably very high price ($7.50) but we had to get on with it.
Topkapi Palace was the government seat of Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople) for over 400 years. It is in a fabulously beautiful spot at the convergence of three rivers, and a park-like setting landscaped with trees and flowers. The scavenges led us through the highlights of this beautiful palace: the treasury and the 86 carat Spoonmaker Diamond and the Throne of Ahmed (gorgeous inlaid mother of pearl boxy bench), Mohammed's swords, Moses' staff and the harem. Before entering, we bought an Istanbul city guide in the gift shop (wahoo!) and found it to be terribly organized, poorly indexed(NO index, actually), and, when we finally got to read the damn thing at night, discovered information that we would have loved to have known was in there, but the awful table of contents didn't hint at. From Topkapi, we went the wrong way but corrected ourselves, to the Archeological Museum and found something of
Alexander the Great's - his facial expression - because the original statues of him were destroyed and these were replicas. We couldn't find the world's first peace treaty, even after asking 5 people who work at the museum. No maps or brochures in the museum. Oh well -- move on.
We found the two obelisks - one Egyptian and one "Constantine".
We visited the Blue Mosque, a huge and intricately decorated mosque, and the Mosaic Museum which was down a lane of fantastic stores selling handmade goods. No time to look, though. A compelling reason to return! (Not to mention that we are racing through things we would want to savor).
The underground cistern, built during tje Byzantine period is way cool. It stored water safely and feels eerie and mysterious - and wet and cool. Its 336 columns are bathed in a low golden light. Scenes from James Bond's "To Russia with Love" were filmed here.
We had trouble getting to Suleymaniye Mosque, but "hopped on" a tram - after walking around in a few circles, and figuring out how to buy the token. We probably got off one stop too early, too. Visited the mosque, and our lame guidebook helped us find the name of the wife that is buried there.
Then, to a more obscure mosque - Rustem Pasa Camii, which was built over shops. Across the street, we ate the required rahat lokum, the Turkish Delight candy. Then, to Istanbul University, which was probably the wrong school because we found Istanbul University of Commerce, which is a very small campus. Then to one of two mandatory food challenges - the restaurant Daruzziyafe's and ten extra points for getting into the kitchen. (When we paid the bill, we said we loved the lamb so much that we wanted to see the kitchen. All true anyway). Then, the scavenge of tea and hookah-smoking, and asking a local about their attitude of keyif (which, apparently is "joy", and who could oppose joy?). Off to the final food challenge. Kinda dumb planning, but the challenge was to eat a doner kebap, but we had one just before the scavenge hunt began, so that didn't count. We ate another one. Donered out for the day. We got in a taxi and drove by to snap a picture of the hotel which once used to house passengers embarking on the Orient Hotel. (The answer is the Pera Palace Hotel, and it's under renovation, so we found it and snapped a pic). We were back in the hotel by 9 PM. Handed our sheets in and went to the bar to hang out with some fellow travellers (fun group!). Bill borrowed our camera chip and may be uploading a few of our pictures onto the website for the Global Scavenger Hunt.